March 12, 2019— President Trump’s mandated report on overhauling the U.S. Postal Service drew a tepid response from lawmakers on Tuesday, as the agency’s own leadership rejected many of the key proposals.

One key area of disagreement between the administration’s recommendations and lawmakers’ vision for the agency surrounded the future of collective bargaining at the mailing agency. Trump’s postal task force, which he created through executive order last year, proposed the Postal Service join the rest of government in not allowing its employees to negotiate over pay. Multiple members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee rejected that suggestion, while David Williams, a recently sworn-in member of the agency’s board of governors, said he could think of “no way at all” such an approach would address the most significant drivers of USPS’s precarious financial situation.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who chairs the committee, was skeptical of that suggestion, noting analysis from the task force that suggested FedEx, which does not have unionized delivery personnel, pays its employees significantly less than the Postal Service. Williams said USPS’ own numbers did not line up with that analysis.